A Modern Times Eve
Every year at this time Wellington becomes a ghost town. To help prove this point, I was in Christchurch last Wednesday enjoying the breweries of Woolston. I tried writing up this email, but the real ales of Cassels and Twisted Hop demanded my attention.This means I can now announce our plans for new year's eve - so they'll be fresh in your mind two days from now.
Modern Times is a brewery I fell in love with during my visit to San Diego. I love that their core range is not your standard 'lager, pale ale, IPA, and something dark', but consists of a red IPA, hoppy wheat, saison and coffee stout.All of their core range beers are flawless examples of their styles, so I sent Steve at Beer Without Borders a picture of their cans, insisting they import them. He promptly sent me back a picture of the same cans in the BwB coolstore - coincidentally they'd just received samples.
Luckily they were just as impressed as I was, and the first shipment from Modern Times arrived just before Christmas.I documented this night with more detail in issue 12 of BorderPost.
We're launching Modern Times core range on new year's eve, this Wednesday.
On tap will be:
- Fortunate Islands: Hoppy Citrusy Wheat
- Blazing World: Hoppy Dank Amber
- Black House: Roasty Coffee Stout
- Lomaland: Bright Rustic Saison
If you'd like to have a try of each of these amazing beers to help ring in the new year, we'll be offering a 'four trip ticket' of sorts. This will get you a fancy of each Modern Times tap beer for just $35. That's even slightly better than SOBA discount.
Also, just for fun we'll also have Almanac Bourbon Sour Porter on tap - the last keg in NZ. Because why not?
Stomping in the New Year
New year's eve won't just be about the beer, we've managed to secure the talents of Black Spider Stomp to add to the atmosphere of the night.They'll be playing adding to the atmosphere from 10pm with their Gypsy Jazz Fusion. And of course, this will cost you nothing.
More Modern Times

While we're on the Modern Times bandwagon, we might as well round it off with a Bottle Pour Saturday of the seasonal beer we're also getting from them.Aurora is one of very few beers from Modern Times that gets the bottle treatment (although it is due to be released in cans in 2015). It is a red rye IPA, weighing in at 6.8% and "loaded with Equinox, Centennial, Motueka, and Experimental Hop 07270."
This Saturday we'll be serving 200ml pours of Aurora for $8.50.
Double Drums
Nick Granville has invited a few friends to have some fun in our lounge this Saturday.
He'll be joined by Nick Tipping on bass, while both Reuben Bradley and John Rae play the drums.
I'm not entirely sure how two drum sets will fit in our wee lounge - but we'll make it work! The double drum funk starts at 10pm this Saturday, and is free for all.
For the last two years we've collaborated with Garage Project to raise money for charity leading up to Christmas.
Anyone who attended the Pacific Beer Expo after party will remember the amazing band Spitfire.
This Saturday we'll be serving two types of blended weasel by the glass.
Every year around Christmas we get requests from customers to buy beer in bulk for their festivities. In the past we've sorted these out on a case-by-case (get it?) basis, but that was before our wholesale subsidiary Beer Without Borders existed.
Back in October Bryan Baird, head brewer of Japan’s Baird Brewing, visited New Zealand. If you went to PBE you probably saw his fascinating seminar. But Bryan wasn't here just for PBE, he also came over to brew a special beer with Hallertau.

Melbourne’s famously off-beat brewers Moon Dog, have made a not so off-beat beer.
Baird's annual wheat wine, descriptively named West Coast Wheat Wine (WCWW), was released in Japan on November 1st.
Earlier in the week a regular customer asked whether we had Almanac's Heirloom Pumpkin Barley Wine in stock. He'd 
Mikkeller make some amazing, boundary pushing beer. A side-effect of pushing boundaries is that it tends to push prices up as well.
This Saturday we’re setting the heat pumps to their highest cooling setting thanks to Vincent Vega’s hot blend of surf, funk, soul and blues.
My favourite of his traditional range is Cathcart's NTA, a beautiful golden ale which hasn't been available for quite a while. I was very happy when we were offered a few casks of NTA, which are now quickly working their way through our handpumps.
It's almost like Moon Dog's Jumping the Shark was made for Bottle Pour Saturday.
Next week's New Release Tuesday hearkens back to Garage Project's original 24/24 series, as they continue their new series of beers hopped with yet-to-be-named experimental varieties.
This Saturday we have an afrobeat treat, in the form of father & son duo Sam & Myele Manzanza.
After closing tonight, we're turning our lounge area into a French resistance bunker. This isn't just an excuse to crack out our berets and baguettes, it's actually for a good cause.
It's almost that time of year, the December event that you've been looking forward to for months is upon us.
Finally, a quick reminder that tomorrow we're hosting seven Rogue beers on our taps.
Saturday's going to be a big day, with three events happening in succession.
Before Saturday's musical act we're hosting entertainment of a different kind, as part of this weekend's LitCrawl event.
Louis Thompson-Munn is playing trio styles at HZ this Saturday. They'll bang out a mix of originals and groove staples drawing from funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop and R&B.
West Australian based Mash Brewing is back this week for NRT, this time with their renowned Copycat American IPA.
You might've noticed a few Rogue beers on special at various supermarkets over the last few months. If you've purchased any of these heavily discounted bottles you may have noticed that the beer wasn't quite tasting as good as you were hoping.